Theatre breaks in London are an excellent way of having a short holiday in the capital. You can combine a show with sight-seeing and a little shopping and turn a couple of days into a real mini-break.

When you are choosing your main show you need to decide whether you want to see a musical, a play or even an opera or ballet. There is lots of choice in the West End and you can be sure of finding something just right for you.

Choose Your Show

Many people have no clear idea of which show they want to see and are more fixed on what is available for their chosen dates. That’s a perfectly good starting point and most of the theatre breaks companies will let you search their site by date not just by show. If you are still not sure what you fancy then this is a brief guide:

If you like the classics then go for Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera, Oliver! or Love Never Dies, which is the sequel to Phantom.

If you prefer something lighter then try Mamma Mia, Hairspray or the unexpected hit of the moment Legally Blonde.

Those of you who like a bit more rock in your musicals might enjoy We Will Rock You, Jersey Boys or maybe Grease.

Finally if you want something a little more steamy there are Dirty Dancing and Chicago.

There are usually at least twenty big shows on offer in the West End so there should be something for everyone.

One Night or Two

Once you have chosen your show and hotel you will often see that it is easy and very reasonably priced to add an extra night. This is a great idea if your budget can run to it as it lifts your theatre break from a quick trip into a mini-holiday . It opens lots of opportunities for other things to do in London.

I’ve included a few ideas for what to do with the extra time:

See more shows

theatre breaks in London

If you have only got a limited time in London and you are a big theatre fan you might even want to see more than one show. The best way to do this is to book your main show as part of your theatre break package, see the show on your first night and then the following morning pop down to Leicester Square and look for the official discount ticket booth. You want the official one in the middle of the square.

There are others but that is where you get the best deal. They have a large digital display of all the discount tickets available for that day and if you are early enough you can often get a real bargain, especially for weekday matinees. I usually like to book a blockbuster musical as my main show and see either a comedy or a serious play on the following afternoon. Try to choose something you would happily pay full price for and then you will really feel you have got a bargain. There are often tickets for Blood Brothers or 39 Steps matinees at good prices and these are both excellent shows.

Sightseeing

You might want to cram in a little sightseeing in London and that can be quite hard work. London is a busy working city and quite spread out to get around on foot. Luckily there are several other ways of seeing the sites. My favorite way of seeing London is a river cruise but open top bus trips are good fun too. If you are feeling adventurous you can even try the Duck which is an amphibious truck that combines both a road and river trip. You can book bus trips, river trips and even the Duck at the same time as you book your theatre breaks package and usually get quite a good discount.

Other Attractions

• The Southbank including the National Theatre
• London’s famous street  Markets
• Dennis Severs House
• 21 top attractions to add to theatre breaks in London

Dennis Severs House is actually a brilliant place to visit. Having been there several times I’d especially recommend going soon before Christmas because they do it up just like old Christmases past, and the smells are simply heavenly. Each floor of the house depicts a different era. You have to be silent though. A great place to just sit & relax. Dennis Severs lived here & created it & invited special guests to experience it in the way he wanted it to be experienced. One of the truly greatest experiences that London has to offer, a unique experience.

Dennis Severs House - 18 Folgate Street

Shopping

London offers an incredible array of shops, from the largest shopping center in Europe to a range of unusual markets:

• There is a German market Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park with mulled wine and Father Christmas or enjoy stunning panoramic views of London via the giant ferris wheel.

Things to do in London, Hyde Park Ferris Wheel

• The Portobello Road market which has existed since the 1800s is a real mecca for bargain hunters and collectors of rare vinyl records.
• With its 275 stores, Westfield is the largest shopping centre in Europe.

Heritage and Culture:

• On 11 December there is a free guided tour “Christmas Through the Ages” around Hyde Park. Discover the folklore of Christmas  and the role the royal parks once played in entertaining the population during the darkest months.

Music

• Until January 5, the city reverberates to the sound of traditional singing of Christmas carols, with open air public concerts and organised choir.
• The Cathedral of St. Paul hosts a series of events: December 15, the Cathedral Choir and Orchestra of the City of London will perform Christmas carols at 18:30 and well known personalities will be doing the readings.

Winter Sport:

London in winter provides lots of opportunities for ice skating:

• In the dry moat of the Tower of London.
• Somerset House on the banks of the Thames, by torchlight complete with guest spots from surprise DJs.

Ice Skating at Somerset House

• In the business district of Canary Wharf surrounded by tower blocks.
• For serious fans of skating, Wembley Stadium  rink is 350 metres long. The largest that has ever existed in Britain.

Food:

• At the ExCeL London  “A Taste of Christmas” exhibition will run from Dec 4th.  Celebrity chefs including Heston Blumenthal will share their know-how. More than 150 producers  will also be present to share some delicious cheese or an authentic panettone.
• Borough Market is a favorite for gourmets. Small producers, farmers and fishermen  from all over the UK have regular stalls. Wander around, do a little gentle shopping and enjoy a wide variety of street food.

Things to do in London - Boarding HMS Belfast

Taking your family with you on theatre breaks, whether children or even grandchildren,  is not only possible but can be a delightful thing to do.

However, children do get bored and it’s a great idea to have lots of things planned in advance so you never run out of things to do

One of the best tips is to plan your things to do according to the age of the children. There’s nothing worse than getting the age/interest equation wrong. It leads to bored, frustrated children and grumpy, resentful adults.

Read on and let’s see if I can help you avoid that, shall we?

Top 5 Things to Do for Children Age 5+

Remember on theatre trips children must be over 5 to be sure of getting into the theatre.

1. London Aquarium – South Bank. Lots of big fish in tanks, always a winner!
2. The Rainforest Café – Shaftesbury Avenue. Fun, themed, child friendly cafe right in the heart of theatreland. Perfect if you’re going to The Lion King!
3. Kensington Gardens - Peter Pan statue/ Diana Memorial Playground. Park and playground, very handy if your hotel is in Kensington.
4. Coram’s Fields -  a unique seven acre playground and park for children in London. Near  the British Museum and Great Ormond Street Hospital. No adult can enter Coram’s Fields without a child and friendly on-site staff ensure that everyone can enjoy their visit. There’s lots to do, playgrounds,  a petting zoo, it’s a great place for the kids to let off a bit of steam during their trip to London.
5. London Duck Tours – A hybrid vehicle- drive around London and then splashdown in to the Thames for a river cruise

Top 5 Things to Do for Children Age 8+

Over 8s are a bit more sophisticated and many of them will enjoy what’s on offer at the best of the London museums. London museums have come a long way in the last few years and most are extremely child friendly. If you have a child who’s into dinosaurs, horror or mummies then the museum visit could be the highlight of their trip!

1. Madame Tussauds – Baker Street. Endlessly fascinating, slightly creepy and great fun. You can usually get a good discount on this if it’s booked at the same time as your theatre break.
2. The Science Museum – free
3. The Natural History Museum – Dinosaurs etc
4. The British Museum – Mummies
5. HMS Belfast - perfect for little (and larger) boys

Top 7 Things to Do for Teenagers

Teenagers get 7 things to do because they are just much harder to please. It’s not easy getting things just right for teenagers. Age, gender and obsessions all matter massively. Best advice is use this list as a starting point and ask them what they’d like to do. You might be surprised what interesting ideas they come up with. Of course, if you’ve involved them at the planning stage you are much less likely to hit the sulks later when you actually get there!

1. Camden Market
2. Shakespeare’s Globe – South Bank
3. The Museum of London
4. London Transport Museum – Covent Garden
5. London Dungeon – London Bridge
6. Westfield – Incredible shopping for fashionable teens
7. South Bank – An unofficial skateboard area and generally cool place to hang out.

Top 5 Tips for Things to Do with a Mixed Age Group

If there’s a teenager in your group do get them involved at the planning stage and ask them to help you plan stuff for the younger ones. Few teenagers can resist stepping back to childhood just a little, especially when they’ve got a good excuse.

1. Hamleys – everyone loves Hamleys. Little ones adore it, some of the older kids (and adults!) get fascinated with the techie toys, others adore the cutesy, trendy Hello Kitty stuff. Just keep an eye on your spending. It’s a hard place to say ‘no’!
2. London Eye
3. The Trocadero – Dodgems, bungee jumping
4. Tower of London
5. Tower Bridge experience

It’s London! There are Always More Things to Do

Many of these attractions are either free or can be booked as extras at a good discount when you book your theatre break.

If none of these appeal then try the listing in the Children’s Section of Saturday’s Guardian or even Time Out for even more ideas for things to do in London

Flaming June comes around just after Spring has well and truly sprung, but before the main Summer holidays, which is in some ways ideal for theatre breaks with outdoor things to do in London. The river trips and topless bus tours come into their own at this time of year, as do the green spaces and parks.

West End Live

For the West End, there’s one special event which comes around each year usually around the third week and that’s West End Live. It’s a free entertainment festival put on in central London’s Leicester Square, right in the heart of theatreland, which serves to promote individual shows which take part and the West End as a whole. Participation varies, for example with Hairspray sending a full cast in costume to perform one number to kick of the show in 2009, and others such as Oliver and Wicked sending along one star to do a big number solo.

West End Live takes place over one weekend towards the end of June and I’m not suggesting anybody hangs around for the whole thing from start to finish, especially if your time in London is limited. Standing up for that length of time is exhausting enough and there’s a certain amount of waiting about between acts. It’s not really worth arriving early and queuing up to get inside the square for the start either, as the queues do build up to quite a length with people wanting to bag a place near the front but it definitely is worth dropping in for an hour or as proceedings get going and the crowds stabilise , and catching any shows you particularly want to see by keeping an eye on the programme of events. This will be found each year on the London Theatre Breaks blog in the West End Live section and they do stick very closely to the times stated because the singers and dancers need to know exactly when they will be on so they can schedule it in amongst rehearsals and even matinee performances on the Saturday.

To give a sample of the happy atmosphere and the kind of performances to expect live in the square here are a few crowd videos from theatre breaks youTube.

Wicked

Alexia Khadime from Wicked sings The Wizard and I.

Priscilla Queen of The Desert

All singing All dancing All camp Priscilla

We Will Rock You

Every year the cast from We Will Rock You put on a big show with a full cast in costume doing several numbers

Oliver!

Jodie Prenger from Oliver sings As Long as He Needs Me

Chicago

In 2009 the cast of Chicago included none other than Jerry Springer

Other Things to do in June

Long light evenings are conducive to wandering about outdoors and pavement cafe meals in interesting side streets. Hyde Park and Regents Park are best known but the smaller St James Park is close by Victoria and Westminster and features a bandstand with live music sometimes, an airy Inn The Park with beautiful roof terrace, and a lake with exotic ducks geese and pelicans.

Columbia Rd Flower Market

Columbia Road Flower Market.

You can often find me here on Sunday mornings mooching through all the gorgeous shabby chic garden accessories. The street market is a great place for drinking in the atmosphere. There are quite a few place to buy great coffee or more exotic street food. Look out for the deep fried chilli prawns, they are delicious!
Once you’ve had your fill of exotic flowers and plants you can nip down the road and have a wonderful Vietnamese lunch in one of the many cafes. They’re all good so just pick a busy one and enjoy!

Spitalfields Market

Just near Liverpool St station you’ll find the uber trendy, recently totally refurbished Spitalfields Market. My favourite time to visit is on a Sunday morning. Then there’s a real buzz of people, lots of unique craft and fashion, some ‘antique’ and vintage stalls and some interesting shops. It’s worth a visit most days but Sundays are a bit special.

On a week day don’t forget to stroll right round the outside of the market area as there are lots of interesting shops. If you are there on a Sunday you can still do a bit of window shopping at places like “Fairy Goth Mother”.

There are some nice places to lunch in Spitalfields too or you could try some of the excellent street food then just have a luxury coffee and cake in one of the many cafes.

The ones with pavement seating are ideal. You can sip your coffee while you watch the world go by, enjoy that favourite London pastime, celeb spotting, and plan other things to do in London.

It’s lovely to make the most of your theatre break and the theatre break agencies often have lots of other things to do in London that you can book at the same time. This is a great way to make sure fit everything in and also save a bit of money. Many additional attractions are offered at reduced prices when you book them with your theatre break.

Popular things to do as part of an inclusive theatre break

You can see from this chart that the #1 most popular thing to do as part of a theatre break is to book the London Eye. This is offered as either a ‘fast track’ ticket (cuts your waiting time for your flight by 30 minutes) or the luxury ‘Champagne Flight’.

The Original Bus Tour is another favourite. An open top bus tour through the London streets with an interesting commentary is a great way to see the sights without getting foot sore.

Next up is the London Dungeon, perfect for scaring yourselves whilst soaking up a bit of history.

These are closely followed in popularity by the Tower of London and Madame Tussauds. If you like history and atmosphere these are all great choices!

If you’d rather do something a bit more out of the ordinary the Duck Tour is great fun. It is an exciting and novel way to see the sights of London.

Personally, hitting the lovely London shops followed by Afternoon Tea at Fortnum and Masons is my favourite thing to do but each to their own.

I hesitate before providing a list because for some people there may be simply too many things to do in London sot the problem is more one of working out how to fit them all in if you’re only there for a short theatre break or weekend break. I guess the knack is to pick one or two top quality activities or visits for each day or part day, and then allow plenty of time in between for getting about and relaxation. If you must try and visit a museum, busy London shopping street, out of the way restaurant, art gallery, river trip and theatre show all in one day then the best thing to do is to make sure you are wearing comfortable shoes with soft soles because otherwise your feet are going to get mighty tired! But if you are looking for inspiration then here is a starter list of popular attractions and things to do which I think you’ll find worth considering.

Popular Things to do List

London Eye

Way out ahead is the simple pleasure of getting up high above the skyline for a spectacular view over central London courtesy of a London Eye flight. Its simply something that everybody has to do when they come to London, and if you’ve done it before, you might want to try a night flight or taking someone along who hasn’t had the pleasure yet.
As a bolt-on booking for theatre breaks there are a few options. The champagne flight sounds luxurious and of course that makes a difference as to who else is likely to be sharing your capsule, in other words quiet couples like yourselves rather than noisy families.

The London Eye Fast Track is also popular, cutting the waiting time down to just 15 minutes from checking in to boarding your capsule. When you book your theatre break and add on a London Eye Fast Track you get a booking confirmation number and will end up pre-booked for your day and time. Present this to the London Eye box office and you can walk onto the next free capsule. Without this you would have to queue up once to buy the tickets, then join an average forty minute queue for the flight.

Tate Modern

The enormous Bankside power station turned into one of the world’s premier modern art exhibition spaces at Tate Modern has become another of London’s iconic landmarks, situated right on the South bank of the river Thames. The building itself is worthy of a visit and if you like modern art that’s a bonus. Admission is free to the huge turbine hall and also the themed collections of twentieth century art genres but if there’s a visiting exhibition on one of the floors you can buy tickets there and then. True art buffs can then catch the Tate to Tate fast catamaran ferry upstream to Tate Britain.

Madame Tussauds

The old waxworks at Madame Tussauds has seen millions and millions of people through their doors since they first opened over 200 years ago, and now the modern experience there has also become just as popular as it ever was. It’s an emotion charged journey up close and personal with A-list celebrities, sporting legends, political heavyweights and notorious historical icons, reliving the times, events and moments that made the world talk about them. Gone are the museum-style ropes and poles so you really can get up close and personal with the mind bending lifelike sculptures.

Dim Sum

When you’re on a theatre break in London, eating times can become slightly out of synch from the normal routine, and you can end up feeling a bit peckish when it’s too late for lunch but also too early for dinner. Of course there are plenty of  restaurants, cafes and pubs serving food all afternoon but to make the most of London why not try going to Chinatown for Dim Sum?  Dim Sum are tasty little dishes such as fried dumplings, grilled pork buns or vegetable rolls which you can order as few or as many as you please to share between you. Chinatown or Soho is situated right next to or perhaps overlapping with London’s Theatreland and you will easily find plenty of Dim Sum restaurants to choose from. Best after 2.00pm and before 7.00pm

The Apple Store, Regent Street

Whether you are principally a Mac or a PC person, the famous Apple Store in Regent STreet is always worth a visit. The UK flagship Applestore is spacious and impressive with enormous high ceilings and a glass staircase leading to the showroom and genious bar section. Here you can get hands on advice about all the Apple products from ipods to Macs, software and professional music and video editing suites. Research your next laptop, buy a gift for your teenager back home or just check your email on one of the hundreds of demo machines without any hassle.

More things to do in London

I’m going to stop right there with this little list before I get carried away. For more things to do in London stay subscribed to our new Theatre Breaks Magazine